Brazil (III) - Rio de Janeiro

The beach side of life... Rio. I think this city is one of the nicest places I've been to. Well, I've only been 5 days there, so my view might be a very, very touristic one, but hey... I am a tourist :D

During the 6 hours ride from São Paulo you see a beautiful country side:
... but once you arrive there, hehe, the beach is calling already: Ipanema Beach, if I remember right...
And the beach gives you what you need: Cangas, Brazilian beach towels...

It is quite crowded... weekday on the picture, imagine the weekends...the favela Rocinha (I think...), they probably have the nicest view onto Ipanema beach

it's so easy to take nice pictures in Rio...
Another day, another beach: Prainha at nine o'clock in the morning...

Some pictures from down town, close to the area Santa Teresa:
On an old tram on a viaduct through the center:
Rio summarized in a painting...

You can see clearly the line between the favela and the non-favela:
The mosaic stairs... they told me that it is kinda "alive", since the artist is always working on it and he exchanges pieces of the stairs:
Another day, another... you know... beach hehehe. This time it's some part of Barra Beach. This beach is something about 20 km in length:

Canga seller...beach fruits:

The view from Morro da Urca, haven't been on the Pão de Açúcar [Sugar Loaf] though (2nd pic), it was too cloudy as you can see...
View to the Crist statue, he is literally watching over the city:

Back on the streets:
Well, the part of the trip which I HAD to do... visiting the Crist on the Corcovado... wasn't so lucky with the weather though. On the first picture you can see a hint of the Maracanã stadium, the forth largest stadium in the world (around 100'000 spectators max):

Best picture I got of him...
But at least I wasn't the only one who was unlucky that day... hehehe... my fellow 32R$-for-a-crappy-view-spenders as well :D
At last some pictures from the famous Copacabana beach:


Sort of liked this quote, because it seems to me that it fits although it's formulated quite harshly:

"A life lived unexplored is a life not worth living." - Kirk Hammet

Brazil (II) - Sao Paulo

It's already been ten-ish days since I returned from my short trip (some might not agree, hehe) to Brazil and I feel like uploading some pictures.

Some impressions from Sao Paulo City:
traffic...

delicious food (but not the one in the front in both of the pots [and why the hell is it turning the picture???]):
chocolate pizza...

and awesome "real" pizza:loads of fruits:
and my first coconut juice:
carnival in Caragua and people getting crazy:

more to come...

Brazil (I)

Oi gente!
Yep, I still exists :)
So I arrived in Rio two days ago and unfortunately I'll have to leave this beautiful place in two days. But until now I've seen the beautiful beaches of Barra, Ipanema, Copacabana, Prainha and others of which I cannot remember their unpronouncable names.

But first things first: I dont have any pictures in this post to prove my words, but they will follow later :) I bet some guys are waiting for pictures of Brazilian girls, I would, hehehe.

Where was I? Ah yes, the beaches... the girls, ahhh. Imagine to live here! Also, here, I am an outstanding person... why?... because I look like a white sheep within brown and black sheeps hehe, yes my skin is still very swiss-cheese like, but I hope that changes after my trip to Bahia next Sunday. Tomorrow I'll see the Christ himself at Corcovado and today I climbed the 'Sugar Loaf', well that's not quite true, it was it's brother the 'Dog Face' (I hope that's right). Hm, writing this is not as much fun as I imagined, because I'd need some pics to show since not everyone is familiar with faces of dogs :)
Before Rio I had a short stay in Sao Paulo, but soon after my arrival me and the family of my half avocado went to the beach in the state of SP. Caraguatatuba, if I remember right. Followed by a short visit to Ubatuba and an intended visit to Parati, which unfortunately miserably failed. We tried it three times and each time something happened, like forgetting the purse of someone etc. I guess it wasn't meant to be :(
After the beach trip, which was quite rainy but still lots of fun, we returned to Sao Paulo, where I stayed for a couple of days. They have the most amazing Pizzas here! I guess better than in Italy (sorry Carloi :)) and the best thing is, they are open until 3 am or even later! We went there at 12 and stayed until 2 am... impossible in Switzerland. Why we went at 12 o'clock? well remember, I am in Brazil, so people are late and slow. And some of them very slow. But I don't mind... I met the nicest people here and I have to admit, the idea of giving 'the living' here a try has crossed my mind (Strange sentence...). Although communication is not always very easy, my acquired Spanish at CERN is enough to understand the basic written Portuguese - speaking is another thing :D

This must be enough for now, gotta go. Boa noite.

Circle of Secret Friends

The Secret Friends had a gathering in a Korean restaurant... and I got my first Christmas present ever! A bit late, but still... cool-e-o! Thanks Marcelo!

A little note: Don't take that "strong, fierce, blabla" soup menu, it doesn't really taste like anything... well it did, after I threw pieces of every other dish I had on my tray, but I don't think that was the idea of it.

Cheers!